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Archive for the ‘Ships & the Sea’ Category

My Wicked Wicked Ways — The Legend of Errol Flynn

20 May

www.tcm.com…

youtu.be/RLtJDNqgoBU…

— Tim

 

Are You Going to Scarborough?

28 Apr

The Tunny are Back!

“Strange but true: in the 1930s Atlantic bluefin tuna (also known as tunny) started to follow the herring shoals into the North Sea, and Yorkshire became the hub of an American-style big-game fishery. Professional hunter Lorenzo Mitchell-Henry set the record for a rod-caught fish in British waters when he landed a 386kg monster in 1933, and Scarborough was soon home to the Tunny Club of Great Britain. Visiting millionaires and movie stars – including John Wayne, Errol Flynn and David Niven – chartered local boats and vied with each other to smash the record.”

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/one-that-got-away-giant-bluefin-tuna-makes-return-to-british-seas-gm8xzz7b2…

www.lonelyplanet.com…

Video history of Scarborough Tunny Fishing
[Beginning at 7:14, where Errol is prominently mentioned.]

— Tim

 

Errol Takes a Dive

30 Mar

Shortly after Rooney goes goo-goo eyes over Jayne Mansfield.

www.oddballfilms.com…

— Tim

 

The Ides of Flynn

15 Mar

Eighty-Five Years Ago Today (Sydney Time), on March 15, 1933, Errol Appeared Live AND On Film at the Prince Edward Theater in Sydney.

Errol was paid £2 to stand on stage in what he later described as a bad wig and bizarre naval uniform, appearing more like “an elderly keeper at a [Sydney brothel] than Fletcher Christian. The Ides of March ended bad for Caesar, but great for Flynn. It signaled the birth of Errol’s acting career.

A superb assembly of contemporaneous news articles by EFB Author “Isabel Australis”:

“In the wake of the bounty” 1933

An intriguing history with some Errol and errors:

books.google.com…

And here’s the cinematic Flynn himself, just as he appeared at the Prince Edward Theater, eighty-five years ago today, March 15, 1933 – On the Ides of Flynn:

— Tim

 

Mail Bag! Hi-Res Image’s of Zaca?

01 Mar

Hello David,

my name is Valentina Libri, editor-in-chief of Sea Fever magazine.  It is a Spanish publication entirely dedicated to the exclusive classic yacht sector. The magazine is published both in Spanish and English. I attach a copy of our latest issue so that you can appreciate the quality of our publication.

 

We would like to publish an article on Errol Flynn’s Zaca.
 
We have visited the Errol Flynn blog and find both the story and the pictures very beautiful. We would like to know if you could provide us with high-quality pictures of the zaca?
 
I really hope you will be interested in collaborating with us to further spread the story of the Zaca.
 
Kind regards,
Valentina Libri
Editor-in-Libri
Sea Fever

— David DeWitt

 

Mail Bag! Schooner Zaca Painting by Dan Gilmore!

16 Feb

Received a nice email from “Schooner4” (award winning artist Dan Gilmore) about his painting of the Zaca with some fisherman nearby available right now for bids on eBay. Wow! It is beautiful work …

Thanks, Dan!

— David DeWitt

 

Any Port in a Story?

13 Feb

Great story, but did Errol ever really visit Port Adelaide, as he says he did in Beams End?

www.adelaidereview.com…

Or was he Fibbin’ Like Flynn?

books.google.com…

How it looked in the Twenties:

— Tim

 

A Day in the Life of Flynn – January 5, 1940

06 Jan

Motion Picture Daily

“Errol Flynn left Hollywood yesterday for a two-week vacation in Boca Raton.”

—-

When Flynn visited Boca in those days, a town of only a few thousand residents before WWII, he was known to visit the world famous Boca Raton Resort, Cap’s Place restaurant and casino (where FDR and Churchill dined during there planning their taking down of Hitler and Hirohoto),and the legendary Delray Arcade Tap Room, all still here and all pictured below. He also fished off the coast of Ft. Lauderale, and is said to have also liked hunting in the Everglades.

— Tim

 

A Day in the Life of Flynn – January 3, 1947

04 Jan

Kingston, Jamaica

“FILM FANS MOB ERROL FLYNN AT MYRTLE BANK”

Errol Flynn came ashore from his yacht at the Myrtle Bank Hotel at noon yesterday – and nearly created a riot. As the handsome, dashing screen star entered the lobby., a waiting army of female hotel fans, who had impatiently been waiting his coming ashore, mobbed him in traditional style.

Since news of his arrival spread through Kingston and St. Andrew yesterday, local cinemaddicts have been concentrating on the Myrtle Bank in an effort to secure autographs, snapshots, or just look at the daring he-man lover of the screen in the flesh.

Gathering yesterday morning a battery of woman fans filled the lobby and verandahs of the hotel. “Bobby-soxers” were in the majority, but there were lots of grownups, too. Impatiently they looked out across the hotel lawn to the pier, and beyond it, where the Zaca rode at anchor on the quiet Caribbean.
Came 12 o’clock and still no sign of the tall hero of Captain Blood, Elizabeth and Essex and other screen successes which have thrilled local audiences. The now-retired movie actor, who arrived here on Wednesday, stayed aboard his yacht this afternoon, along with members of his party.

THE WORD GOES UP

Suddenly there was a sensation. The word went up that he was coming. Large as life, and as handsome as he appears on screen, Errol Flynn walked into the lobby. Something like a cross between a scream and a sigh issued from a hundred lips. The actor smiled at the demonstration.

When they crowded around him, however, he decide it was too much of a good thing. Quickly getting into a waiting motorcar, he left the hotel and did not return until during the evening. The fans, torn between partial satisfaction and partial disappointment, went away.

Presence of the popular actor, whose exploits, on and off the screen, have won him wide mention, has made Myrtle Bank the focus of local attention. Busiest switchboard in town is the PBX at Myrtle Bank, where the telephone operator spent half a day yesterday saying, “Yes, he is here. No, he hasn’t come ashore yet.”

CLERKS KEEP BUSY

No less busy has been the desk, where the clerks have been equally engaged in answering queries as to the whereabouts of Mr. Flynn. Autograph books and baby cameras have been greatly in evidence, while the staff have been kept on their toes coping with the extra demand on their time as a result of the increased number of visitors to the hotel.

— Tim

 

Quiz

02 Dec

The photo below was taken at a location where one of Errol’s relatives had a prominent connection. In fact, a geological feature there is named after one of Errol’s relatives.

Where is this location? Who was the relative? What feature is named after Errol’s relative, and why??

Clues:
1. It is enormously expensive to visit.
2. Very few people have ever been there.
3. It is a site of rare and spectacular beauty.
4. It’s the most remote location on Earth named after a relative of Errol’s.

— Tim